Iraqi activist: Baghdad betrayed me
By Arwa Damon, CNN
September 12, 2011
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): "Be the change that you want to see," the classic Gandhi quote is what Noof Assi says she lives by. She is at the forefront of demonstrations in Iraq demanding basic services and reforms.
NOOF ASSI, IRAQI BLOGGER AND ACTIVIST: I learned how to blog in 2009.
DAMON: The 21 -year-old fabric design major turned activist and blogger works at a human rights NGO. She shows us what she wrote a few years ago.
(on camera): I dream to sleep without painkillers. I dream to wake up in a home that gives me love and hope, not to end up in a grave.
Do you still feel that way?
ASSI: I want to have a dream again, but I dream a lot. Sometimes, yes. The reality is just wake up someone -- someone wake up.
DAMON: (voice-over): Noof takes us to the streets around her old high school. In 2007, they were lined with corpses.
ASSI: For the first time that I saw a corpse, I was just scared and crying and almost can't sleep at night. But I keep her in my dreams.
DAMON: She was just 17. Soon, such terror became normality.
ASSI: One day I remember that my sister hit me and she told me, "Come on, cry," because I can't drop any tears.
DAMON: It was not a price that she or any other Iraqi citizen was ever asked if they were willing to pay. Blaming both the U.S.-led invasion that led to al Qaeda's emergence in Iraq and the sectarian blood-letting and her own people for allowing it to happen.
ASSI: We should be the ones who change the boundaries, not let the Americans (INAUDIBLE). I -- I remember one day I was (INAUDIBLE) for some application and some (INAUDIBLE) men told me, you are Iraqi, what for you let the other ones do your job?
And it hurt me.
DAMON: Maybe, she speculates, if change in Iraq had come from within, it would have brought the right people to power, led to a functioning government and society.
But last year, two car bombs targeting the Trade Bank of Iraq exploded next to her home, destroying her only real sanctuary.
ASSI: When I lost my (INAUDIBLE) and I lost everything in it, I started to think that I have nothing in my own country. I mean, I love Baghdad, but Baghdad don't love me.
DAMON: Although she has moments of optimism, they tend to quickly fade away. Now Noof is thinking about leaving her homeland.
NOOF ASSI, IRAQI BLOGGER AND ACTIVIST: I learned how to blog in 2009.
DAMON: The 21 -year-old fabric design major turned activist and blogger works at a human rights NGO. She shows us what she wrote a few years ago.
(on camera): I dream to sleep without painkillers. I dream to wake up in a home that gives me love and hope, not to end up in a grave.
Do you still feel that way?
ASSI: I want to have a dream again, but I dream a lot. Sometimes, yes. The reality is just wake up someone -- someone wake up.
DAMON: (voice-over): Noof takes us to the streets around her old high school. In 2007, they were lined with corpses.
ASSI: For the first time that I saw a corpse, I was just scared and crying and almost can't sleep at night. But I keep her in my dreams.
DAMON: She was just 17. Soon, such terror became normality.
ASSI: One day I remember that my sister hit me and she told me, "Come on, cry," because I can't drop any tears.
DAMON: It was not a price that she or any other Iraqi citizen was ever asked if they were willing to pay. Blaming both the U.S.-led invasion that led to al Qaeda's emergence in Iraq and the sectarian blood-letting and her own people for allowing it to happen.
ASSI: We should be the ones who change the boundaries, not let the Americans (INAUDIBLE). I -- I remember one day I was (INAUDIBLE) for some application and some (INAUDIBLE) men told me, you are Iraqi, what for you let the other ones do your job?
And it hurt me.
DAMON: Maybe, she speculates, if change in Iraq had come from within, it would have brought the right people to power, led to a functioning government and society.
But last year, two car bombs targeting the Trade Bank of Iraq exploded next to her home, destroying her only real sanctuary.
ASSI: When I lost my (INAUDIBLE) and I lost everything in it, I started to think that I have nothing in my own country. I mean, I love Baghdad, but Baghdad don't love me.
DAMON: Although she has moments of optimism, they tend to quickly fade away. Now Noof is thinking about leaving her homeland.
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| "نوف وهي تتسلم شهادة "التدوين من أجل المستقبل Noof receive certificate "Blogging for future" from IMCK |
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